STRANGE GRAFT, STRANGE HISTORY, STRANGE FOLKS - CULTURAL AMNESIA AND THE CASE FOR LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES

The academy today is only vaguely aware that its racial, ethnic, gende r, and sexual makeup does not reflect the diversity of the society tha t surrounds it. When the university fails to encompass lesbian and gay studies, it loses not only knowledge of the presence of homosexuality in history and culture but analysis of homophobia and the role it has played in constructing the present. What is at stake is the integrity of the Western tradition of scholarship. The question is whether its studies can be objective, thorough, accurate, and complete-in a word, scholarly-as long as subjects like homosexuality, homosexual persons, and homophobia are systematically excluded.